Erika D. Smith: Politics to pizza, longtime operative carves out new slice of life

Mar. 10, 2014

Aaron Schaler prepares a pizza during a test-run at Indy's Kitchen. After spending years working on political campaigns and at nonprofits, the 36-year-old has decided to open a Pizza King restaurant. Deliveries start Tuesday, but the Downtown restaurant won't officially open for a few months. It will be in The Axis building. / Erika D. Smith/The Star

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“Do you know the trick to this?” Aaron Schaler asked as he stopped poking at a sizzling cheese pizza long enough to glance at me. I shook my head. “You have to spin it.”

At 6-foot-5¾ inches (more on the three-quarters later), he’s the perfect height for peering into the dark recesses of a gas-powered pizza oven. He’s a natural with a pizza peel in his hand.

But it’s also weird because Schaler, 36, is a guy most people are used to seeing in carefully tailored suits.

As president of the Indiana Stonewall Democrats, he’s the guy known for running around the Statehouse, glad-handing and sharing bits of political gossip with the right people. He’s a plain-spoken advocate for gay rights.

As the longtime development coordinator for the Damien Center, he was the guy known for canvassing for dollars to support the nonprofit’s mission of preventing the spread of HIV. He’s the guy who spent his 20s and early 30s working on political campaigns, including Melina Kennedy’s mayoral bid.

Now, though, Schaler is the guy who owns a Pizza King franchise.

When The Axis building opens soon, he’ll have a first-floor retail spot along Michigan Street next to the new Marsh grocery. For now, though, he’s operating out of Indy’s Kitchen just north of Downtown.

“I’m not going to stop being an activist,” he said. “I’m now just going to work as an empowered individual. As a business owner.”

It’s a new life for Schaler.

Almost dying will do that to a person.

It was Dec. 17, 2012, when ­Schaler met up with Brian Benson for their first — and what, tragi­cally, would be their last — date. A red Dodge van smashed into both men while they were walking in Fountain Square.

The impact sent Schaler flying 22 feet into a parked car.

Benson was stuck under the van and was dragged almost 70 feet along Prospect Street. He died at the scene.

“The good thing is I didn’t feel anything at all,” Schaler said. “We saw the van jump the curb, and Brian and I looked at each other and didn’t really think anything of it. And literally the next thing I remember is waking up in the ­hospital.”

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He suffered two broken verte­brae, shattered a third, broke his left shoulder blade, all of his ribs and his right cheekbone and ­severely damaged an eye socket. It took several surgeries to repair all the damage, including the insertion of a metal rod that doctors

had to attach to his spine. The rod ­added three-quarters of an inch to his already considerable height.

“Nothing hurts today,” he said, and indeed you can’t even tell he was in an accident.

Other things changed, though.

When he finally returned to work at the Damien Center, Scha­ler found his heart wasn’t really in it. “The center deserves to have someone who is 100 percent dialed in. And I deserve to do something that I want to do 100 percent. So I started looking around.”

The promise of a financial settlement from the accident changed the parameters of what “looking around” meant. Suddenly, the ­impossible seemed possible.

Schaler said he has always wanted to own a restaurant. His first job was as a dishwasher at a Noble Roman’s pizza. Years later, even as he developed a name in political circles, he worked at restaurants. A TGI ­Fridays. A Cheesecake Factory. An O’Charley’s. The now defunct Hollywood Bar and Filmworks. He even helped open the Bazbeaux in Carmel.

Why a Pizza King?

He grew up visiting the chain in his hometown of Lafayette. There’s hasn’t been a Pizza King in Downtown Indianapolis for several years, only in Geist, Avon and Southport. So buying the rights to the franchise here seemed like a great opportunity.

Not just an opportu­nity to make money but also to give back.

It’s an opportunity to give people jobs. (He plans to pay all of his employees $10.10 an hour, forgoing the normal $2.13 an hour wage, plus tips that most servers and pizza delivery drivers get.) To grow the tax base. To partner with nonprofit organizations, such as the Damien Center and the Julian Center, for fundraising events. To build a business with a culture that reflects his civic-minded spirit.

“The accident, it taught me a lot. I was just going out to have a couple of drinks, and that was going to be my night. And then my life was drastically altered. When I got the settlement, I wanted to do something good with it. Make it so that it all just wasn’t in vain.”

He paused, looking down at a piece of cheese pizza.

“I thought that this would be the best way to do it,” he said. “To create something bigger than myself.”